Why SVG?

What is SVG?

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is an XML based language that makes it possible to describe graphical information in a compact portable form. It was introduced by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in 1999 as an open standard for publishing animation and for interactive applications using vector graphics on the Web. Since 2009, SVG technology has been progressively adopted by the majority of IPTV middleware providers as the basis for user interface presentation on the television.

What are the benefits for the content creator?

User interface designers have often experienced situations where their carefully crafted customer experience gets so heavily compromised on the route from their initial concept through to deployment that they wonder why they ever bothered in the first place. In most cases, this is because their design concepts cannot be transferred onto the product due to the technical constraints of embedded system performance and display variations. This issue is most prevalent in the television industry, where the large screen size, multiple formats of the TV display and the low processing power of the set top box combine to make one of the most difficult user interface development environments around.

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) technology significantly strengthens the link between user interface design and deployment by allowing UI designers to use their existing design tools and then export the results in SVG straight onto the target platform for visual inspection. Platform restrictions and colour balance issues can be immediately recognised by the designer, who can then iterate the design within the envelope of their original customer experience concept.

What are the benefits for the middleware provider?

Middleware providers seek the optimal blend of system performance, stunning visual appearance and rapid customisation. Typically, they also want to ensure conformance to open standards and minimal client integration issues.

SVG is ideally suited to deliver on these requirements:

  • Being a graphically based language, SVG processing is heavily biased towards rendering rather than formatting. This enables considerable performance advantages to be gained from the 2D blitter and 3D acceleration technology present within most set top box and TV silicon.
  • The Scalable nature of SVG ensures that objects are always drawn at the best possible resolution preventing the need to store multiple copies of assets to cater for different screen sizes.
  • Absolute positioning and superb animation capabilities ensure that user interfaces are engaging, whilst SVG's ability to support rapid development ensures that UIs also stay topical and fresh.
  • Being better suited to TV UI rendering than many legacy rendering technologies, middleware vendors switching to SVG are typically able to offer their operator customers the ability to re-use their deployed set top box inventory without having to compromise on improved customer experience goals.
  • Open standards provide the assurance that vendor lock-in issues are minimised with SVG engine quality and customer support ultimately determining market leadership.

    • Ekioh takes things a step further; Its unerring focus on system performance and detailed knowledge of the TV industry make Ekioh the perfect SVG engine partner.